Project 365: #21

It's been a great week!  Here are some snippets :)

Day 143:

Aaaaaaand that's how I found Gracie sleeping!


Day 144:

Bowling shoes on Girls Day!


Day 145:

Maggie wore her flower girl dress to church on Sunday and wanted some fancy hair to go with it.


Day 146:

Roasting marshmallows on Memorial Day!


Day 147:

Spoiler Alert:  someone is getting glasses!


Day 148:

Greg, a college student, is staying with us this summer.  Aaron is doing a training thing this summer for college students that he is a part of.  He's already been such a blessing to us, and the girls just love him!


Day 149:

Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

I hope you have a great weekend!  We are traveling for a wedding, so I'm hoping that goes well!  

Copycat Panera Power Chicken Hummus Bowl

I like to tell Aaron that part of my charm is this deep-seated need I have to recreate restaurant food at home.

Now, if I have to inform someone that something is part of my charm, it begs to be asked whether or not it's actually part of my charm if I have to tell him :)

The latest recreation?

Panera's Power Chicken Hummus Bowl

Here is Panera's...

and here is mine.

There are a few differences:

• I left off the onions
• I peeled the cucumber and cut it smaller
• I forgot about the cilantro
• Panera uses a very practical shallow bowl which makes it easier to eat the salad.  I don't have any of those, but I have my eye out for some!

Here's what you need:

• 4 ounces of chicken, cooked (I saved some from supper the night before)
• diced tomato
• peeled, diced cucumber
• half of a lemon (I plucked out the visible seeds)
• 2 tablespoons of hummus (you can choose the flavor)
• fresh spinach
• optional red onion and/or cilantro

It's pretty self explanatory, but put a couple of handfuls of spinach on a plate, add the chicken, tomato, and cucumber.  Dollop on some hummus and squeeze the lemon all over the salad, but concentrate some of the lemon on the hummus.

The brightness lemon marries well with the earthiness of the hummus to make a really delicious dressing.  I like to toss it all together!

This is a perfect salad for lunch! 

No offense to the mighty PB&J, but I prefer other lunch options.  Using leftover chicken makes this a super easy salad to throw together for lunch; you can have it on the table in 5 minutes or less!  

Also, I think this would travel really well.  The dressing is formed when you squeeze the lemon, so your greens won't get all soggy like they would with a traditional dressing.

And nobody wants soggy greens ;)

Panera really knew what they were doing when they made this one!

Give it a try!

Talking on the Phone to a 3 Year Old

Gracie was talking to my parents on the phone the other day, and I enjoyed listening to Gracie's somewhat ridiculous end of the conversation.

It started out traditionally enough.

Then she started talking about one of her favorite things:  her birthday!

...which is actually on August 26th, so there's that :)

Gracie is consistently concerned about Aaron's dad's gluten allergy.

And then she just grocery listed every allergy she could think of!

When she's done being on the phone...she is DONE being on the phone.

You know, regardless of how silly, meandering, and abrupt a phone call with Gracie may be, it's worth it, because you get to talk to her <3

Such a silly little sweetheart!

Girls' Day

A couple of years ago, Gracie was still really little, Aaron went out of town for the weekend.

I took the girls to Walmart, and we ran into our friend, Ethan.

We were talking about Aaron being gone and Ethan asked, "So, is this like a fun girls' weekend for you?"

I paused and considered lying.  But, instead, I honestly replied, "No, not really.  Maybe when they're older.  Right now it's just kind of hard."

Ethan and his wife invited us over for supper the next night which was wonderful!

But, the girls are getting older so when Aaron is gone I don't panic quite as much as I used to.

Aaron was gone from 9 in the morning until 11:30 at night on Saturday, so I decided that we would have GIRLS DAY!

We started out by going to the cupcake shop!

It was so delicious!  I do my fair share of baking, so believe me when I tell you that these are delicious cupcakes!  The chocolate based ones are great, but the white cake based ones are phenomenal!  I can't make a good white cake from scratch to save my life.  

Good thing I won't have to save my life by making one :)

The girls did some drawing and game playing on the white erase board table top!

Then we went to play at one of our favorite parks.

They played on some playground equipment...

and did some performing at the band shell thing.

In addition to her self assigned emcee duties, Leah sang a song she's learning in music class, including the whispered "rest" at the end of the musical phrases.

Maggie sang a lovely "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?"

And Gracie regaled the crowd (me) with a passionate rendition of "Let it Go."

Then they joined forces to sing "So Long, Farewell."  Naturally :)

They bowed at the end which resulted in one of my favorite pictures!

We had lunch at one of their favorite places:  the grocery store.

And made a quick stop at Target.

After we got home and the little girls took a nap, we headed out to go bowling!

The girls got to choose a treat out of a vending machine which is something we never do.

They enjoyed the bowling...

and Maggie even got a strike!

We came home and had waffles for supper.  We closed the day out with a little Max and Ruby.

It was a good and full day!

Evidenced by the fact that I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30.

Girls day...it's a good thing!

Project 365: #20

Good Morning!

Leah is at school, Aaron is at work and the little girls and I are chillin' and watching a Daniel Tiger episode about trying new foods.  Let's hope they take that to heart.  

We're going to make this for a special treat on pizza night!

Anyway, down to the pictures!

Day 136:

Jenny and baby Evan came to visit for the day!  We had a wonderful time hanging out!

Day 137:

Look at these awesome eggs we saw at the Farmer's Market!  You can't really tell from the picture, but some of the eggs are a light, delicate green color.  Even if I could bring myself to spend $5 on a dozen eggs, I don't think I could use them because they're so pretty!


Day138:

There was face painting at our Sunday School picnic and it was seriously some of the best face painting.  Gracie had a Dora on her cheek that was amazing!


Day 139:

Maggie and I are reading a book...a book about reading :)


Day 140:

If I was a betting person, I'd bet that this is the fawn's mom.  I mean, unless it's a boy deer, in which case I have no idea.


Day 141:

America runs on Dunkin and sometimes so do we :)


Day 142:

My pretty little explorer <3

I hope you have a great weekend!

There Was a Fawn in Our Garage

Yes, there was a fawn in our garage.

Aaron was outside with Maggie and Gracie while I was helping Leah with her homework and shower.

Maggie came out of the garage and in a non-alarmist way told Aaron that there was a baby deer in the garage.  That was quite a big deal seeing as Maggie is pretty much afraid of everything.

I asked Maggie to tell me how she found it, so here's a 29 second video of what she thought when she found it.

Baseball mitt, deer.  Potato, potahtoe :)

So, here's the sweet baby deer.  

I'm going to refer to it as a she, because, well, we've only ever had girl babies, so it's habit :)

I did a quick couple of searches and apparently fawns bed down like this when they are scared.

She doesn't carry a scent yet to keep her safe from her predators.

She's likely a week or 2 old and is probably still nursing, because she still has her spots.

She's so beautiful!

Her mama was probably off looking for food or something.  I also read that sometimes the mommy deer don't want to be by the baby so that her smell doesn't rub off on the baby which would draw a predator's attention.  <3

We've had a deer in our yard a few times the last day or 2, so I'm guessing maybe that was the mom.  It's weird to me that we've had deer in our yard, because we definitely live in town.  But, "as the crow flies," we're close to a park that has a lot of wooded area.  I think with the road construction in the area, the wildlife may be a little spooked.

Anyway, I kind of thought that we shouldn't touch her because then the mom might smell people scent on her and abandon her.  Aaron said that's a myth about birds.  He grew up on a farm and has an environmental science degree, so I figured he knew what he was talking about!

Aaron pet her first...which kind of gives you scale as to how little she is.

The girls were curious.  Although Gracie was equally happy to dig in the dirt.

Leah was the first one up for petting her.

She loved it!

And Gracie could not be stopped!  I think she would have put the fawn in a dress if she would have thought of it ;)

Maggie wasn't so sure about petting it at first.

But, she went for it...

and was super happy to have Aaron right there during the whole thing!

The girls then conferred about giving her some grass/dandelion greens.

Gracie was ready to feed her!

She didn't want any, but Leah and Gracie enjoyed petting her again!

We were afraid that she'd be kind of confused in the garage...I mean, our garage is a wreck so I'm pretty much confused when I'm in there and I'm not a baby fawn.

our friends loaned us the wheelchair when Gracie broke her leg...a year and a half ago.  Oops!

So, Aaron picked her up.

He said she was really light and it felt similar to holding a cat.  I think it's super adorable tough that Aaron knows about cats because they had so many barn cats when he was growing up.

He took her out to the woodsy/thicket area on the side of our yard

and set her down.

She was gone when he checked 20 minutes later, so I'm assuming she's safe with her mama now.  

I like a happy ending...even if it is for a deer!


In case you missed them, here are some previous posts:
Perpetuating the Mommy Stereotype
A Great Day to be Alive
Project 365:  Week 19
The World's Best Snickerdoodles
10 on 10:  May